Private detectives for Kate and Gerry McCann are pursuing a report today that a girl calling herself “Maddy” was seen in the Netherlands just after their daughter vanished.
The possible sighting of the Madeleine was reported to Portuguese officers in June last year, but it has only now been made public with the release of previously secret police files.
Dutch shop assistant Anna Stam (41) said she spoke to a girl aged three or four in Amsterdam who said her name was “Maddy.”
The girl entered Ms Stam’s party shop in early May last year with a man and a woman and two other children, according to a witness statement to Dutch police.
The man appeared to be speaking Portuguese, but the woman spoke in English and told Ms Stam they had a small circus in France, according to the statement.
Ms Stam was at the back of the shop when the young girl approached her and asked in unaccented English: “Do you know where my mummy is?" On being told that her mother was a little further back in the store, Ms Stam said the child replied: “She is not my mummy. . . . She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy.”
The Dutch woman said she thought the girl looked “very much like” Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair.
The report was sent to the Portuguese authorities on June 18th last year, but it is not clear what action was taken.
The McCanns have accused detectives of withholding potentially crucial evidence from them after the newly released official documents revealed a series of leads they knew nothing about.
A dossier containing thousands of pages of evidence was released to journalists on Monday after the lifting of the period of judicial secrecy in the case.
On July 21st, Portuguese prosecutors announced they were shelving the investigation. The McCanns and Algarve resident Robert Murat were told they were no longer formal suspects.
PA